Students Generate Electricity from Exercising
Tennessee Tech University and Chapman University are competing to see which university can produce the most electricity for the power grid by using the SportsArt Fitness Green System gym equipment installed at their schools.
The Green System allows both schools to offset energy costs by feeding utility-grade electricity back into the grid. It consists of a collection of cardio units connected to an inverter that is hard-wired into the building’s electrical system. As students and faculty exercise, the energy they produce is harnessed and fed back into the grid to offset power consumption within the building.
The Kilowatt Throwdown contest runs for a month, from Feb. 15 to March 15, and is handicapped since TTU has 17 pieces of equipment with its Green System and California’s Chapman University has 10.
The winning school will receive a $7,000 treadmill from SportsArt Fitness.
EcoFit, a company that provides the monitoring equipment that can be used with the Green System, will give the top energy producers separate awards from Best Buy and Footlocker.
The ACC Clean Energy Challenge, dedicated to helping students develop and commercialize new clean energy technologies, this month began accepting applications for the 2013 contest.
Open to students throughout the Southeastern United States in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the ACC Clean Energy Challenge features a $100,000 grand prize, with the winner advancing and representing the southeast region in the DOE National Clean Energy Business Plan Finals in Washington, DC, in summer 2013.
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